It is the best decision I have ever made!!!

Hola,

It has been an amazing week down here in Mexico. I am glad to hear that you are all doing well and having fun with your various summer activities.

 I am having so much fun and working so hard . . . its probably why I am so tired.  You can tell the ward that I am having the time of my life!

Janaye, thank you for your pictures, they are all super awesome!  I will put some up in my new house.  Oh yeah, we are changing houses due to the fact that it is infested with cockroaches (big ones!!) and rats keep trying to come up out of the toilet.(big ones!!).

 We had a baptism this week of Sarah.  I have lots of pics but I am still looking for a way to send them to you.  Here are some pics that Elder Brito just sent me.  I love my companion Elder Rios, we are working really well together!  When we teach we always say the exact same thing that the other was thinking.  We teach and work really well together and are having a blast.

The family of the bishop is awesome.  The wife of the bishop is from the Yucatan and just came back from visiting and she brought back some of the best tasting and most wild looking fruit I have ever seen in my life.  Avocados and Mangos as big as my head!!

After the baptism we had on Saturday we went to meat with Sarah. Her whole family was there and felt the spirit really strong.  We asked them what is holding them back from being baptized, and they said "nothing, when can we be baptized?"  So we will be baptizing the rest of Sarah's family on the 21st of next month!

Being a zone leader is fun!! Sometimes it is difficult and I am always tired, but I love all of the Elders in my zone.  We had an activity Sunday with all of the district leaders and their companions and the spirit was so strong.  Everyone is working super hard right now and our zone is baptizing a ton,!! I hope we can keep it up and improve.

The new President still hasn't arrived.  He will come this Saturday, I will probably see him Monday at the earliest when we go to the offices.  I will miss President Chavez, but I am super excited to work with the new president too.

 

I cant believe how quick my mission is going!! Sometimes I wish I could just put the time on pause, but I cant.  I am enjoying every minute of my mission.....It is the best decision I have ever made.  I love you all a ton.

Con Muchismo Amor,

Elder Joe Fuell

New area is awesome!!

Hola,

It has been another great week in Mexico. I am glad to hear that you are all keeping busy.  It has been a great week with lots of rain which means that we are always wet but its all good, its a lot of fun.

My new ward, Constitution, is awesome!!!  It is really small with about 30 members but they are also super awesome. I have never had so many lessons with member in my life.  So it is really nice to have the support of the barrio (ward).

My house is pretty cool, I have to sleep with my sweater or else I get eaten by mosquito's.

Elder Rios my companion is way cool.  We get along really well and we are having fun and working hard.  He was saying to me the other day in the bus how he feels like he´s been doing this his whole life.  I thought about it, and its true, sometimes when you are working hard you just get lost in the work!!.   Today we had the "dispedida" (I don't know how you say that in English) (Farewell ) of President Chavez.  I am going to miss him a ton.  He was super strict but he really loved us all.  I think every one of the missionaries were crying.  I hope that I will get to see him again one day like the Sons of Mosiah, if we stay firm in the faith.

Life has been super good, I am still getting to know the investigators.  We have the baptism of Sarah this week, she is awesome.  She has a testimony that is very strong of the Book of Mormon.

I am grateful for the Book of Mormon and the chance I get to serve a mission!  It is awesome. I love you all a ton.

Con Muchimo Amor,

Elder Joe Fuell

Transferred!!!!!

Hola,

Wow, what a week down here!! It has been pretty hot.  This week I learned the importance of following the spirit as well as why we should not drink Unpasteurized milk.  I am being transferred from this area tomorrow.  I feel like I just got here.  I got called to Constitucion as Zone Leader of Iztapalapa (ha ha I thought I was finally going to leave Iztapalapa, guess not)... Constitucion is right next to Quetzal, my first area, so I imagine it should be pretty similar.  My companion is Elder Rios, I have known him for a while he is from Jalapa Veracruz and likes American football so I think we will get along all right.  So from now on my preparation days will be on Tuesdays because we have to go to the offices for meetings on Monday.

 

I am glad to here that you guys had a great anniversary.  You are the best parents ever and I love you both a ton.

 

This week we found a family who is super awesome.  Aldo is our age and has already read the whole gospel principles book and wants to get baptized, his Mom and Brothers do too.  His dad doesn't believe in God, he is atheist...It has been really interesting teaching him.  The first time I met him I felt like Ammon and King Lamoni when they found the Dad of King Lamoni (a little crazy).  Slowly but surely the Dad of Aldo is opening up his heart, I hope he will be able to come to church next week.  I am kind of bummed that I have to leave my investigators but, its part of the game.

 

We found another family this week, with a lot of problems and it has been interesting on how every member of the family is drawn to a different aspect of the Gospel.  When we taught them how to pray the Mom was so excited!  She said that she really wanted to learn to pray with her heart and not just recite a written prayer.  She was so grateful for the opportunity to pray.  It made me grateful for the opportunity to pray..  I have been praying all of my life since I can remember, but it is really a huge blessing that we should always keep in mind.

 

No there are no rules against sending recorders so feel free to send it.  And shirts too please because now I have less time then before (ugh) but its all good.   If you could send me some DVDs of conference talks that would be super cool, if not that's all  good.

 

I love you all a ton and am glad to hear you are doing well.  I should be able to send you some awesome pictures of our fish barbecue,  I am now an expert Lobster cooker! I will have to show you when I get back (where they got the lobsters I am still not sure)

 

Con Muchismo Amor,

Elder Joe Fuell 

A week of ups and downs

Hola,

It has been a great week here in Mexico. Really Hot, but the rainy season should be starting any day now, which means constant rain until September.  The good thing is this is the time of year when we teach the most because everyone is out of school and can listen to us.

Congrats Katie on the Graduation.  That is awesome, I feel like I just graduated.

This was a week of ups and downs, I will start with the downs because it is better to end with the ups.  So some of our super awesome investigators who were Jehovah's Witness are now once again Jehovah's witness and do not want to listen to us. We are not really sure what happened, but it broke my heart because they were such an awesome family to teach and I hope that they will still be friendly.  Sometimes as a missionary there is disappointment but the good times are so awesome that they make you forget all of the lame stuff that happens.

This Saturday we  had the baptisms of Jenni and Karen,  We had to clean the font before hand because the member who is suppose to do it had is wisdom teeth taken out so he was "incapable".  I don't see how that applies, he is not cleaning it with his mouth, and he had his surgery on Monday.  Oh well. 

The boiler broke down and we ran out of water, so we only could fill up the font a little more than one foot high.  We had to baptize them laying down, but it worked, they went completely under and all though they were somewhat traumatized by the cold water it was a good experience over all.

One of the really cool things that happened was that a lady showed up to the baptism with her towel and wanted us to baptize her too.  We didn't know who she was, but she said she had prayed and she knows that this is true so she wanted to get baptized.  So we will be baptizing her next week.  Pretty cool.

Everything is great here.  I cant think of anything else.  No, they don't celebrate 5 de Mayo here, only in the US ha ha.  Still haven't found any white shirts but I am going to keep looking.

I love you all,

Con Muchisimo Amor,

Elder Joe Fuell

A great week for our investigators

Hola,

What a week here in Mexico.  We are just running on full cylinders all the time, so right now I am really enjoying my preparation day.  Just cleaning the house and stuff.  Thanks a ton for the pictures.  I loved them glad to see that you are all doing well.

 

This week was key for a lot of our investigators.  We went in to teach one of our investigators, Angelica this week, not really knowing what we where going to teach, and we sat there and listened.  Just after listening for a couple of minuets she started to cry, and said that she feels really bad for things that she has done in the past and said she knows that we can help her.  It was awesome!!!  Listening is so fundamental in missionary work . . . and in life.

 

I went to the offices to renew my visa this week so I got to see all my old friends from the MTC (Missionary Training Center).  It was good to see them, we will be going to the Mexican Embassy to tie up loose ends this next week. 

 

We had the baptism of Fransisco this week, the old man who sells hub caps, he asked if I could baptize him.  It was a really cool experience and he said he felt awesome.  We are gearing up for a couple more baptisms this week with Jeni and Karen.  Satan is working hard on Jeni right now, everyone in the world seems to be against her in this decision,  but she has received an answer to her prayers and I hope that she can remain faithful to that.

 

I have had the opportunity to see a lot of people change this week.  I know that through the gospel of Jesus Christ    people can change for the better!  Everyday I try to be better and try to live more like the Savior. 

 

I love you all!!

Con Muchisimo Amor,

Elder Joe Fuell

I love serving my mission in Mexico City

Hola,

it has been a great week here in Mexico.  The heat is really picking up so I am pretty burnt on my face, but my arms are as dark as my Mexican companion ha ha.  I am glad to hear that you all had a good week at home.  Good job at state Dal, I am sure that you will take it next year.

 

We baptized Victor this week and it was an awesome experience.  The ward is really gathering around him.  When we got to the church before his baptism, we found the ward mission leader standing there, he said that there was no water in the church, Luckily it is a stake center so there are 2 baptismal fonts but the other one was half-way filled with dirty water and dead bugs . . . but I wasn't going to postpone Victors baptism because it was the only day his dad could make it.

 

So we went into the young men's classroom and said that we needed their help, I took off my suit jacket, rolled up my sleeves and me and my companion started filling up garbage cans with water and the boys would hall it out of the church.  We were lucky enough to finish before sacrament meeting, but I had to talk in sacrament and I had slipped in the watter a couple times, and was all wet, so I gave my talk in wet cloths, but the baptism was awesome!!!

 

This week we knocked a door of a lady that said she wasn't interested but asked if we could help her fix her TV antenna on top of her roof.  So I jump up on the wall (all houses have walls around the house in Mexico City) and then the roof.  My companion was about to jump up on the wall when I stopped him because the top of the wall was embedded with glass from broken bottles to stop anyone from climbing over the wall.  I don't know how I didn't slice my hand open because I slid my hand right against the glass with all the weight of my body.   I fixed the antenna and consider that a miracle,  I am glad to know that someone is watching out for us up there.

 

We found a really cool investigator this week.  Her name is Azucena, she is different from other investigators because she is Jewish.  We have to teach her a lot differently because she doesn't have the Christian background like almost everyone else we teach.  We asked a couple of missionaries, but not one of the other missionaries has ever taught someone who was Jewish.  Even President Chavez said that he hadn't.  She really has a deep interest to know whether this is true or not, and she is reading the Book of Mormon, and we are praying that through it, she can obtain a testimony that Jesus is the Christ, which is her biggest doubt.  I love teaching her because she always has so many questions.  Through teaching her I have come to understand Jacob 5.  And The book of Isaiah has become my new best friend!!!

 

This is one of the many reasons why I love serving my mission in Mexico City, you teach, find and meet so many different kinds of people, and there is one solution for everyone and that is Jesus Christ.  I am grateful for him and all that he did and does.

 

I love you all and hope you have an amazing week.

Con Muchísimo Amor,

Elder Joe Fuell

It was great talking to the family yesterday!!!!!

Hola,

 

It has been a great week here in Mexico with a great ending (talking with you guys.)  It was kind of a busy week and we had a lot of meetings.  I like meetings, but sometimes  I just need to get up and walk around.  Its hard to stay seated for 7 hrs when you are used to walking around in the street all day long. 

Like I said on the phone, this Saturday we went to the Temple to see a family get sealed together for all time and eternity that Elder Brito had baptized a year ago.  It was an awesome experience to see a family sealed together.  I hope I get to see it again before I leave but hopefully with my own converts.

 

We have this new investigator and her name is Jeny and she is super cool.  She is a friend of a member who invited her to come to church.  It was cool, this last Sunday she told us that after our lesson with her at her friends house she went home and her mom was really mad at her sister and took it out on her (jeny) too and said that she is waisting her time with us (the missionaries and the church). Her mom left and she was thinking about what we had taught and she decided to pray to see if this was true and if that she could be comforted.  She said she immediately felt better and she new that it was true, and then her mom got home, and was happier and said that she was sorry and that this was something good that she is doing and that she would support her in this decision.  The mom also said that her other sister should come take the lessons with her to come closer to God.

Another Testimony that God listens to prayers and answers them.  It was a great experience....my highlight for the week.

 

My work-out consists of the basics: running in the morning,a variety push ups, sit ups, etc.  Oh and we have a pull up bar, or we made a pull up bar ha ha.  We only have 30 minutes to work out but I like to work out longer on our preparation days.

 

I went to look for shirts today and they didn't have any short sleeved.  I don't know if you could send me some?  I can send you the pesos that they gave me for the reimbursement.  Let me know what works the best.  I am still good on peanut butter, fortunately all of my (Mexican) companions hate peanut butter.  I am guess-ta mating that I will run out about the end of July, but I will let you guys know. 

 

I was thinking the other day of how we have the little DVD players in the house to watch the missionary training stuff.  I was thinking it would be super cool, if you guys could burn me some talks from conference  (videos in Spanish) and send them to me, if not, its all good, I just thought it would be cool.

 

I love you all.  It was awesome to talk to you all yesterday.  Take care and I will talk to you again at Christmas.

 

Con Muchisimo Amor,

Elder Joe Fuell